Adults are overreacting to a child's normal play

I write in response to your Jan. 30 story on the 5-year-old with the Lego gun.

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capecodtimes.com

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Posted Feb. 3, 2013 at 2:10 AM

Posted Feb. 3, 2013 at 2:10 AM

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I write in response to your Jan. 30 story on the 5-year-old with the Lego gun.

I think he was using a toy provided appropriately for a 5-year-old, because he doesn't have the mental capacity to understand it as anything that would be unsafe for anyone. Five-year-olds are not mature enough to fully understand how adults would react. This reaction will shame him and punish him for being normally creative and inquisitive — that is far more damaging.

Guns are in the news in negative ways, but let's not put our knowledge and fear into a child and allow him to feel less than normal. This child will understand guns all his life; this doesn't mean he will shoot up a day care with a Lego or a school with a real gun.

I'm a grandmother of four younger boys and think of this as adult fear, not inappropriate child endangerment. All over the country guns are a part of American life. In the West and South they are hung in people's vehicles proudly, right in front of children.

I'm sure the day care mates were unaware and not in fear of their supposed danger. The child acted age appropriately; I'm not so sure about the adults.